The one simple trick to avoid overeating during the holidays

INSIDER spoke with nutritionist Keri Glassman about how to avoid overeating during the holiday season.

Glassman suggests measuring your hunger to help you eat more mindfully.

The holiday season is full of cocktails, cookies, and sometimes stress. This doesn't make it the easiest time of year to stick with a healthy diet. But Nutritionist Keri Glassman, founder of The Nutritious Life, knows that it is possible not to overeat and still enjoy yourself.

Glassman told INSIDER that the best way to avoid overeating during the holidays is to measure and eat according to your hunger.

How hungry are you, really? Shutterstock

"Knowing where you fall on a scale from one to 10 is important to understanding when it's time to eat and when it's time to pass on seconds," she said. "If you use your hunger quotient all the time, or as much as possible, even if you indulge a bit more over the holidays in more decadent foods you will never overeat too dramatically."

Glassman explains in a blog post that your hunger quotient is a number on a scale that helps you rate how hungry you are, with 10 representing serious hunger and one meaning you're very full.

"As an adult, you eat for so many reasons other than true hunger, and sometimes you eat without any hunger," Glassman writes. "Stress, your previous meal experiences, emotions, and hundreds of other factors influence your appetite."

Those feelings could heighten during the holiday season, and using the hunger quotient scale helps you eat more mindfully without additional stress. That's because you can use the scale to decide what and how much to eat based solely on your hunger — not boredom or emotions.

This tip also connects with an additional piece of advice from Glassman on food selection.

"During the holidays, desserts and celebrating with decadent foods are inevitable, but strategically choosing which indulgences are worth it and which are worth passing on will help you feel empowered about making the decision to indulge when you want to, which in turn will help you not overdo it," she said.

Keeping these tips in mind and monitoring your hunger will help you avoid overeating and enjoy your favorite holiday foods— without unnecessary guilt or extra weight gain.

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